February 18

February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 316 days remaining until the end of the year (317 every 4 years).

Events

Up to 1900

1229 – Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten–year truce with al–Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem, with neither military engagement nor support from the Pope.
1268 – The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakvere.
1332 – Amda Seyon I of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence is executed in the Tower of London after being convicted of treason against his older brother, King Edward IV of England.
1637 – Eighty Years' War: Off Cornwall, a Spanish fleet intercepts a very important Anglo–Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
1745 – Surakarta, Central Java, is founded.
1766 – A mutiny by captive Malagasy begins at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present–day South Africa and recapture of the instigators.
1791 – United States Congress passes a law making Vermont a state from March 4.
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Montereau.
1861 – Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy assumes the title of King of Italy.
1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
1865 – American Civil War: Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia, South Carolina.
1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
1885 – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is published.
1900 – Second Boer War: British forces suffer their worst single–day loss of life of the war on the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

1901 – 2000

1906 – Edouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee.
1910 – The future–World Governing body for the sport of Skiing is founded in Kristiania, present–day Oslo, in Norway.
1911 – The first airmail flight takes place in what is then British India.
1913 – Pedro Lascurain becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes. This is the shortest time that a President has ever served in office.
1930 – From photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers the dwarf planet Pluto.
1932 – The Empire of Japan declares Manzhougou (Manchuria) independent of the Republic of China.
1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of people in the Chinese community in Singapore that it sees as hostile to its regime.
1943 – Members of the White Rose Resistance Movement are arrested by the Nazis.
1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay. This action later spreads throughout India.
1947 – First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.
1952 – Greece and Turkey join NATO.
1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
1960 – The Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, begin.
1963 – The eruption of the Agung volcano on Bali kills around 1,500 people.
1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1969 – Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 crashes into Mount Whitney, California, killing all on board.
1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first flight, on a Boeing 747.
1978 – The first Ironman triathlon takes place on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is won by Gordon Haller.
1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara desert of southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.
1983 – 13 people die in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is believed to be the worst robbery–motivated killing in US history.
1985 – NBA player Larry Bird barely misses a quadruple–double in a game against the Utah Jazz. He sits out the entire fourth quarter.
1988 – Anthony Kennedy becomes a member of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1991 – The IRA detonates bombs at London's Paddington and Victoria Stations.
2000 – Stjepan Mesic becomes President of Croatia.

From 2001

2001 – Inter–ethnic violence begins in Sampit, Indonesia, between Dayaks and Madurese.
2001 – Dale Earnhardt dies in a crash on the last lap of the last turn on the Daytona 500.
2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union.
2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
2004 – Up to 295 people, including around 200 rescue workers, are killed in Iran, when a freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.
2005 – A ban on Fox Hunting in the United Kingdom enters effect.
2007 – Terrorist bombings occur on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
2010 – A coup takes place in Niamey, Niger. President Mamadou Tandja is replaced by a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy.
2014 – At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine, during the Euromaidan protests.

Births

Up to 1800

1372 – Iban Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (d. 1448)
1374 – Saint Jadwiga of Poland, Queen of Poland (d. 1399)
1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472)
1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabha, Indian saint (d. 1534)
1516 – Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558)
1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyo (d. 1578)
1543 – Charles III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1608)
1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (d. 1674)
1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1692)
1635 – Johan Goransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)
1642 – Marie Champnesle, French actress (d. 1698)
1677 – Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1756)
1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist, composer and teacher (d. 1809)
1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)

1801 – 1900

1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician (d. 1900)
1817 – Lewis A. Armistead, American Confederate General (d. 1863)
1818 – Pedro Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician and revolutionary (d. 1870)
1832 – Octave Chanute, French–American civil engineer and aviation pioneer (d. 1910)
1836 – Sri Ramakrishna, Indian Bengali Guru (d. 1886)
1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)
1846 – Wilson Barrett, English playwright (d. 1904)
1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)
1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian writer (d. 1906)
1850 – George Henschel, German–British baritone, conductor and composer (d. 1934)
1854 – Herbert Gladstone, British politician (d. 1930)
1855 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French writer and diplomat (d. 1932)
1857 – Max Klinger, German sculptor and painter (d. 1920)
1858 – Princess Louise Marie of Belgium (d. 1924)
1860 – Anders Zorn, Swedish painter (d. 1920)
1875 – Wilhelm Külz, German politician (d. 1948)
1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957)
1885 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator (d. 1954)
1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
1892 – Wendell Wilkie, American politician (d. 1944)
1896 – André Breton, French writer (d. 1966)
1897 – Charles Kuentz, German–born French World War I veteran (d. 2005)
1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian founder of Ferrari (d. 1988)
1898 – Luis Muñoz Marin, 1st Governor of Puerto Rico (d. 1980)
1899 – Arthur Bryant, British historian (d. 1985)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)
1902 – Walter Herbert, German–born conductor and impresario (d. 1975)
1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Soviet politician (d. 1983)
1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian physician, after whom Asperger syndrome is named (d. 1980)
1912 – Heinz Kühn, German politician (d. 1992)
1914 – Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter (d. 2000)
1915 – Phyllis Calvert, English actress (d. 2002)
1916 – Jean Drapeau, 37th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
1919 – Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1979)
1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
1920 – Eddie Slovik, American soldier (d. 1945)
1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American publisher (d. 2012)
1922 – Joe Tipton, American baseball player (d. 1994)
1922 – Eric Gairy, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997)
1925 – Marcel Barbeau, Canadian painter and sculptor (d. 2016)
1925 – George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016)
1927 – Richard A. Snelling, two–time Governor of Vermont (d. 1991)
1927 – John Warner, American politician (d. 2021)
1929 – Len Deighton, English writer
1929 – Ertem Egilmez, Turkish movie director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1989)
1931 – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize winner
1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015)
1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech movie director
1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese singer and performance artist
1933 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (d. 2009)
1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
1934 – Paco Rabanne, Spanish fashion designer
1936 – Ab McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler
1938 – Istvan Szabo, Hungarian movie director
1939 – Marek Janowski, Polish–born conductor
1940 – Prue Leith, South African–English chef and writer
1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, actor and comedian
1944 – Pat Bowlen, American owner of the Denver Broncos football team
1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer
1946 – Michael Buerk, British newsreader
1946 – Jean-Claude Dreyfus, French actor
1947 – Princess Christina of the Netherlands
1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American musician
1947 – Carlos Lopes, Portuguese athlete
1948 – Sinead Cusack, Irish actress
1949 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
1950 – Cristina Ferrare, American model, actress, writer and host
1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress
1950 – John Hughes, American movie director (d. 2009)

1951 – 1975

1951 – Komal, last Queen of Nepal
1951 – Isabel Preysler, Filipino–Spanish journalist
1952 – Randy Crawford, American singer
1954 – John Travolta, American actor
1956 – Rüdiger Abramczik, German footballer and manager
1956 – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian politician and businessman
1957 – Marita Koch, German athlete
1957 – Bruce Rauner, American politician, 42nd Governor of Illinois
1957 – Christiane Torloni, Brazilian actress
1957 – Vanna White, American actress/game show model (Wheel of Fortune)
1958 – Lucie Visser, Dutch actress and model
1958 – Gar Samuelson, American drummer (d. 1999)
1959 – Hallgrimur Helgason, Icelandic artist and writer
1960 – Greta Scacchi, Australian actress
1960 – Tony Anselmo, American animator
1961 – Hironobu Kageyama, Japanese singer
1961 – Alison Owen, British movie producer
1963 – Anders Frisk, Swedish football referee
1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor
1964 – Paul Hanley, British musician
1965 – Dr. Dre, American record producer and rapper
1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
1967 – Colin Jackson, Welsh athlete
1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player
1969 – Jason Sutter, American drummer
1970 – Susan Egan, American actress
1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter
1971 – Merritt Gant, American guitarist
1971 – Constnatin Popa, Romanian–Israeli basketball player
1971 – Thomas Bjorn, Danish golfer
1972 – Fabian Picardo, 7th Chief Minister of Gibraltar
1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer
1973 – Shawn Estes, American baseball player
1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
1975 – Keith Gillespie, Irish footballer
1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer
1975 – Thora Arnorsdottir, Icelandic television presenter and former Presidential candidate

From 1976

1977 – Chrissie Wellington, English tri–athlete
1978 – Josip Simunic, Croatian footballer
1980 – Nikolai Antropov, Kazakhstani ice hockey player
1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
1981 – Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer
1982 – Courtney Act, Australian drag queen, singer and entertainer
1982 – Kaspars Cipruss, Latvian basketball player
1983 – Roberta Vinci, Italian tennis player
1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English footballer
1984 – Laurent Vidal, French triathlete (d. 2015)
1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
1985 – Jos van der Emden, Dutch cyclist
1985 – Song Jae-rim, South Korean actor and model
1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican–American spree killer
1986 – Vika Jigulina, Romanian singer
1986 – Marc Torrejon, Spanish footballer
1988 – Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer and actor
1988 – Maiara Walsh, Brazilian–American actress
1990 – Park Shin-hye, South Korean actress, dancer, model and singer
1990 – Kang So-ra, South Korean actress
1991 – Malese Jow, American actress and singer-songwriter
1991 – Henry Surtees, English racing driver (d. 2009)
1992 – Logan Miller, American actor
1995 – Samantha Crawford, American tennis player

Deaths

Up to 1900

814 – Anglibert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760)
901 – Thabit ibn Qurra, Iraqi physician, astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)
999 – Pope Gregory V (b. 972)
1139 – Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)
1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1215)
1379 – Albert II of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
1405 – Tamerlane, Mongol ruler (b. 1336)
1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395)
1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (b. 1449)
1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer and theologian (b. 1486)
1546 – Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)
1564 – Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor (b. 1475)
1712 – Louis, duc de Bourgogne, heir to the French throne (b. 1682)
1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)
1772 – Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count of Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
1834 – William Wirt, United States Attorney General (b. 1772)
1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1837)
1890 – Gyula Andrassy, Hungarian politician and statesman (b. 1823)
1891 – Henry Hastings Sibley, American politician (b. 1811)
1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician (b. 1814)
1895 – Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen (b. 1817)
1899 – Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician (b. 1842)
1900 – Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)

1901 – 2000

1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany and Co. (b. 1812)
1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman (b. 1830)
1910 – Lucy Stanton, American abolitionist (b. 1831)
1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
1915 – Harry Ward Leonard, American engineer and inventor (b. 1861)
1931 – Frank C. Emerson, Governor of Wyoming (b. 1882)
1932 – Frederick Augustus III of Saxony (b. 1865)
1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)
1937 – Lamartine Griffin Hardman, American politician, Governor of Georgia (b. 1856)
1937 – Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Soviet politician (b. 1886)
1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
1949 – Nicolas Alcala-Zamora, Spanish politician (b. 1877)
1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and industrialist (b. 1907)
1966 – Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, movie director and producer (b. 1908)
1967 – Dragisa Cvetkovic, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
1969 – Dragisa Cvetkovic, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
1973 – Frank Costello, Italian–American mob boss (b. 1891)
1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
1981 – John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1895)
1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand writer (b. 1895)
1993 – Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959)

From 2001

2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American racing driver (b. 1951)
2001 – Balthus, Polish–French painter (b. 1908)
2003 – Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)
2004 – Jean Rouch, French movie maker and ethnologist (b. 1917)
2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and movie maker (b. 1922)
2009 – Kamila Skolimowska, Polish hammer thrower (b. 1982)
2009 – At-Tayyib Salih, Sudanese writer (b. 1929)
2010 – John Babcock, Canadian World War I veteran (b. 1900)
2010 – Ariel Ramirez, Argentine composer (b. 1921)
2012 – Roald Aas, Norwegian speed skater and cyclist (b. 1928)
2012 – George Brizan, Grenadian politician (b. 1942)
2013 – Jerry Buss, American businessman and owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team (b. 1933)
2013 – Elspet Gray, Scottish actress (b. 1928)
2013 – Otfried Preussler, German writer (b. 1923)
2014 – Nelson Frazier, Jr., American professional wrestler (b. 1971)
2014 – Nikhil Baran Sengupta, Indian art director, producer, designer and actor (b. 1943)
2014 – Malcolm Tierney, British actor (b. 1938)
2014 – Al Greene, American baseball player (b. 1954)
2014 – Kristof Goddaert, Belgian cyclist (b. 1986)
2015 – Cass Ballenger, American politician (b. 1926)
2015 – Claude Criquielion, Belgian cyclist (b. 1957)
2015 – Mark Fischer, American lawyer (b. 1950)
2015 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player (b. 1962)
2016 – Abdul Rashid Khan, Indian musician (b. 1907)
2016 – Pantelis Pantelidis, Greek singer-songwriter (b. 1983)
2016 – John Reinhardt, American diplomat (b. 1920)
2017 – Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian terrorist (b. 1938)
2017 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1942)
2017 – Lawrence F. Snowden, American military officer (b. 1921)
2017 – Pasquale Squitieri, Italian movie director and screenwriter (b. 1938)
2017 – Clive Stubblefield, American drummer (b. 1942)
2017 – Michael Ogio, Governor–General of Papua New Guinea (b. 1942)
2017 – Norma McCorvey, American activist (b. 1947)
2017 – Dan Vickerman, Australian rugby player (b. 1979)
2017 – Richard Schickel, American writer, filmmaker and critic (b. 1933)
2020 – Sreten Stefanović, Serbian Olympic gymnast (b. 1916)
2020 – José Bonaparte, Argentine paleontologist (b. 1928)

Observances

Independence Day (the Gambia)
International Asperger's Day